Encouragement

I had a 1,500-word blog ready to post a couple of days ago and I deleted it. I highlighted my thoughts of the political world, my lack of trust for the entire media spectrum, and my concern of social media distorting our views and dividing our country even more. However, there is no way I could let myself publish it. It was too dark. Reality is dark, but I just felt depressed re-reading it. I have been mentally and emotionally wound up in the news hype and the slew of devastating events. This culmination of negativity has really brought me down to a level that is hard to even explain. I cannot imagine staying in this line of thinking and being able to remain mentally and physically healthy for an extended period.

Should I close my gates and be ignorant of what is going on in the world? No. Not at all.

This life is a balancing act. I’m not saying anything new here, but looking for the good in life can make a difference in the decisions we make. Hope can only do so much for me. If you are anything like me, you need more than hope and an inspirational quote to bring your spirits up. There must be action and forward motion to strike a positive chord inside. Setting down my phone and getting involved with a hobby or visiting with friends is a way to actively separate myself from the negativity streaming through my news feed and timelines. More internally I find that it is important that I be thankful for what I have. My home, my car that’s paid off, the job that I have, the family and friends that are in my life – these are just a few of things I must remind myself of. When I begin to think about how amazing it is that I am in good health and because of my hard work I can only improve from this point forward mentally, physically, and emotionally, I am even more thankful.

Some of you might think to yourself, “Well, lucky you. I don’t have [fill in the blank].” Or “I don’t feel [fill in the blank].” There are plenty of folks who are much worse off than I’ll ever be, but that is something we can all say. No matter how bad things may be in your life, there is always someone who is going to be worse off. Does that lessen your situationor make your struggle illegitimate? Of course not, but maybe that’s a way you can reset yourself to get your mind back on track.

I’m just riffing and spit-balling ideas at you all at this point, but I just want to encourage everyone.

Our attention is spread thin, but maintaining our mental, physical, and spiritual health should be at the forefront of our minds.This life isn’t easy, and it’s not long.Embrace the hard times, and be thankful for the good ones.

Monday, May 14th, 2018 at 8:08amSorry that our podcasts streams for both 12:30 Pod and Three Waves Deep are down. They’ll be back, we promise. Just waiting until we got the proper resources to devote to them.